Basic English Version : Read the Bible in 1 Year

Jeremiah 30 / Basic English

1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2. The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Put down in a book all the words which I have said to you.
3. For see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will let the fate of my people Israel and Judah be changed, says the Lord: and I will make them come back to the land which I gave to their fathers, so that they may take it for their heritage.
4. And these are the words which the Lord said about Israel and about Judah.
5. This is what the Lord has said: A voice of shaking fear has come to our ears, of fear and not of peace.
6. Put the question and see if it is possible for a man to have birth-pains: why do I see every man with his hands gripping his sides, as a woman does when the pains of birth are on her, and all faces are turned green?
7. Ha! for that day is so great that there is no day like it: it is the time of Jacob's trouble: but he will get salvation from it.
8. For it will come about on that day, says the Lord of armies, that his yoke will be broken off his neck, and his bands will be burst; and men of strange lands will no longer make use of him as their servant:
9. But they will be servants to the Lord their God and to David their king, whom I will give back to them.
10. So have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and at peace, and no one will give him cause for fear.
11. For I am with you, says the Lord, to be your saviour: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you wandering, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment.
12. For the Lord has said, Your disease may not be made well and your wound is bitter.
13. There is no help for your wound, there is nothing to make you well.
14. Your lovers have no more thought for you, they go after you no longer; for I have given you the wound of a hater, even cruel punishment;
15. Why are you crying for help because of your wound? for your pain may never be taken away: because your evil-doing was so great and because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you.
16. For this cause, all those who take you for their food will themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those who take away your goods by force will undergo the same themselves.
17. For I will make you healthy again and I will make you well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for by no man.
18. The Lord has said, See, I am changing the fate of the tents of Jacob, and I will have pity on his houses; the town will be put up on its hill, and the great houses will be living-places again.
19. And from them will go out praise and the sound of laughing: and I will make them great in number, and they will not become less; and I will give them glory, and they will not be small.
20. And their children will be as they were in the old days, and the meeting of the people will have its place before me, and I will send punishment on all who are cruel to them.
21. And their chief will be of their number; their ruler will come from among themselves; and I will let him be present before me, so that he may come near to me: for who may have strength of heart to come near me? says the Lord.
22. And you will be my people, and I will be your God.
23. See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads of the evil-doers.
24. The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in days to come you will have full knowledge of this.

Jeremiah 31 / Basic English

1. At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.
2. The Lord has said, Grace came in the waste land to a people kept safe from the sword, even to Israel on the way to his resting-place.
3. From far away he saw the Lord: my love for you is an eternal love: so with mercy I have made you come with me.
4. I will again make new your buildings, O virgin of Israel, and you will take up your place: again you will take up your instruments of music, and go out in the dances of those who are glad.
5. Again will your vine-gardens be planted on the hill of Samaria: the planters will be planting and using the fruit.
6. For there will be a day when those who get in the grapes on the hills of Ephraim will be crying, Up! let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.
7. For the Lord has said, Make a glad song for Jacob and give a cry on the top of the mountains: give the news, give praise, and say, The Lord has given salvation to his people, even to the rest of Israel.
8. See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here.
9. They will come with weeping, and going before them I will be their guide: guiding them by streams of water in a straight way where there is no falling: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is the first of my sons.
10. Give ear to the word of the Lord, O you nations, and give news of it in the sea-lands far away, and say, He who has sent Israel wandering will get him together and will keep him as a keeper does his flock.
11. For the Lord has given a price for Jacob, and made him free from the hands of him who was stronger than he.
12. So they will come with songs on the high places, flowing together to the good things of the Lord, to the grain and the wine and the oil, to the young ones of the flock and of the herd: their souls will be like a watered garden, and they will have no more sorrow.
13. Then the virgin will have joy in the dance, and the young men and the old will be glad: for I will have their weeping turned into joy, I will give them comfort and make them glad after their sorrow.
14. I will give the priests their desired fat things, and my people will have a full measure of my good things, says the Lord.
15. So has the Lord said: In Ramah there is a sound of crying, weeping and bitter sorrow; Rachel weeping for her children; she will not be comforted for their loss.
16. The Lord has said this: Keep your voice from sorrow and your eyes from weeping: for your work will be rewarded, says the Lord; and they will come back from the land of their hater.
17. And there is hope for the future, says the Lord; and your children will come back to the land which is theirs.
18. Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God.
19. Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years.
20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.
21. Put up guiding pillars, make road signs for yourself: give attention to the highway, even the way in which you went: be turned again, O virgin of Israel, be turned to these your towns.
22. How long will you go on turning this way and that, O wandering daughter? for the Lord has made a new thing on the earth, a woman changed into a man.
23. So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Again will these words be used in the land of Judah and in its towns, when I have let their fate be changed: May the blessing of the Lord be on you, O resting-place of righteousness, O holy mountain.
24. And Judah and all its towns will be living there together; the farmers and those who go about with flocks.
25. For I have given new strength to the tired soul and to every sorrowing soul in full measure.
26. At this, awaking from my sleep, I saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27. See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will have Israel and Judah planted with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.
28. And it will come about that, as I have been watching over them for the purpose of uprooting and smashing down and overturning and sending destruction and causing trouble; so I will be watching over them for the purpose of building up and planting, says the Lord.
29. In those days they will no longer say, The fathers have been tasting bitter grapes and the children's teeth are put on edge.
30. But everyone will be put to death for the evil which he himself has done: whoever has taken bitter grapes will himself have his teeth put on edge.
31. See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah:
32. Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide out of the land of Egypt; which agreement was broken by them, and I gave them up, says the Lord.
33. But this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34. And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever.
35. These are the words of the Lord, who has given the sun for a light by day, ordering the moon and stars for a light by night, who puts the sea in motion, causing the thunder of its waves; the Lord of armies is his name.
36. If the order of these things before me is ever broken, says the Lord, then will the seed of Israel come to an end as a nation before me for ever.
37. This is what the Lord has said: If the heavens on high may be measured, and the bases of the earth searched out, then I will give up the seed of Israel, because of all they have done, says the Lord.
38. See, the days are coming, says the Lord, for the building of the Lord's town, from the tower of Hananel to the doorway of the angle.
39. And the measuring-line will go out in front of it as far as the hill Gareb, going round to Goah.
40. And all the valley of the dead bodies, and all the field of death as far as the stream Kidron, up to the angle of the horses' doorway to the east, will be holy to the Lord; it will not again be uprooted or overturned for ever.

1 Thessalonians 3 / Basic English

1. At last our desire to have news of you was so strong that, while we ourselves were waiting at Athens,
2. We sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in the good news of Christ, to give you strength and comfort in your faith;
3. So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us.
4. And when we were with you, we said to you that trouble was before us; and so it came about, as you see.
5. For this reason, when I was no longer able to keep quiet, I sent to get news of your faith, fearing that you might be tested by the Evil One and that our work might come to nothing.
6. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has given us good news of your faith and love, and that you have happy memories of us, desiring greatly to see us, even as we do to see you;
7. For this cause, brothers, in all our trouble and grief we were comforted about you because of your faith;
8. For it is life to us if you keep your faith in the Lord unchanged.
9. For how great is the praise which we give to God for you, and how great the joy with which we are glad because of you before our God;
10. Night and day requesting God again and again that we may see your face and make your faith complete.
11. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus make a way for us to come to you;
12. And the Lord give you increase of love in fullest measure to one another and to all men, even as our love to you;
13. So that your hearts may be strong and free from all sin before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.